jee

Sounds like body position to me. Are you sure you're ready for a 135? If your profile is correct 90 jumps may be a little slim for a high performance canopy like a sabre 2 135 regardless of wing loading. Check with your instructor to be sure you are not dropping a hip when you reach back. What you are describing is what could happen with 135 but not on a more forgiving 150 of the same design if your body position doesn't remain square. You also might have to kind of "fly" the opening. For reasons other than the difference in square footage ANY 135 at ANY wing loading becomes a different animal. Be safe...check it out.

This is pretty easily fixed by cutting the bungee in the back and attaching velcro to both sides. The velcro holds it together so the bungee accomplishes the same purpose of holding the slider down. In the case of a cutaway, the main will pull the bungee and the velcro will separate resulting in a clean cutaway. You just need the right amount of velcro to keep the bungee on during normal use, but still be able to release during a cutaway. Albeit seemingly minor if it stays attached to the reserve flap I think it still constitutes an alteration to the reserve system in which case it would void the TSO. I could be wrong however it makes no sense to me to potentially interfere with the operation of a system that is there to save your life.

Most of them that I've seen are not really very safe if you ask me. If fact the way the bungee's are wrapped around the reserve flap my guess is it isn't legal either. The best or safest way to hold down your slider is to have a slider stop sewn onto the lower part of the front risers. It's what Brian Germain calls "Slocks". Check this out: http://www.bigairsportz.com/article.php#slider

I can't figure out why a person would take to time to get all the lines nice and straight and the canopy flaked perfect only shove the nose in and mess it all up. I was originally taught to pack like that but have since stopped at the urging of a wise old rigger. My openings have never been better since. Go figure.

Darth Vader won't hear much with a VISO strapped to the side of his hat. The optima is very cool. I don't have one but everybody I know that does seems to like it. I just got a VISO and can't figure out why you have to tie it to the hand strap with a piece of string. It seems like L&B would come up with something a bit more technically sophisticated.

So far I have not had any issues with unexplained holes in my reserves. Since I buy new gear and I watch each and every repack (working on my rigger ticket) I think my reserves will last quite a few years.

Quite normal to have end cell closure on soft opening canopies. You should be able to catch it right after/on opening with the rear risers, correct any heading changing you have from it and pump the rear risers to get the end cell to inflate. Don't pump the rear risers. Just hold them down steady until the end cell opens up. Keep an eye out for other traffic at the same time. Then release your toggles and proceed as normal. This in fact was normal procedure on my Safire 1 for each and every jump.

If it has holes in it? Yes. IIRC you fly, right? Would you fly a properly repaired aircraft? Yes, of course. I get your point JP. But to me that little thought in the back of my mind before I step out the door..............well, I'd rather just buy a new one. Maybe for the same reason I don't mind flying a repaired airplane. Or unrepaired for that matter. You don't mind packing a reserve with holes in it on your back. You have several thousand jumps and you are comfortable with that. I have several thousand hours flying and I'm comfortable with flying airplanes with holes. It seems though that canopy flight is much more fragile.

If it has holes in it? Yes.

You can buy a brand new PD reserve for $800.00. Buy one today. Why would you want to take any chances with your life.

As previously mentioned the Vector 2 is not a bad container but it is definately very old technology. Unless it is a freebie there is no reason not to buy something a bit more secure. If you are military go for the 50% off wings. I doubt you could find anything with low jumps used at that price. Good luck.

It's not just a few. It's all of them. Plus they don't want anybody else doing the work. And quite frankly neither do I. I would think it's important for them to know exactly what's going on with rigs they put out only a few months ago.

I belong to 2 Aerodyne Icon containers that are affected by the recent service bulletin. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3060605;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Just to let everybody know they are covering all shipping costs and reserve repacking. If anybody is considering a new rig consider the Icon. You can be sure that Aerodyne will stand behind their product. Edit: My bad...They are covering the repack on a fresh repack. 1 rig is due for a repack so I'm paying for that. Very fair and I wouldn't ask for anymore.

Glad to see you went with new gear and didn't try to "save" with used. Sharp rig. Very nice and clean colors.

I beg your pardon. What the fuck are you talking about? It was his nice way of calling you an a.... Oh I love it when I'm called that!

Hmmmmmm.....good question.

Talk to the experts at your own dropzone. They are the only people that can properly adivise you including canopy selection and wingloading.

I beg your pardon. What the fuck are you talking about?

I'm not embarrassed now nor will I be ANY time in the future for advising a new jumper to disregard any and all info here on this forum. I've never recommended any type or size of canopy for anybody to use. I clearly am not qualified to do that being a newbie and all. And I know you're not either. My daughter jumps at Coulter Field is that where you work? Jump?

We're required to call all known traffic to all aircraft receiving traffic advisories, whether VFR or IFR. In class B airspace, we are required to separate them. With that said, more than one traffic call has been missed. And more than one pilot has flown around with his transponder off, making him almost invisible to many ATC radars. See and Avoid has it's limitations, just as radar does also. I like TCAS . . . a lot. TCAS is great. But it still doesn't help much for that transponder left in standby mode.

I don't think that would be prudent. If, as you say, 100 jumps 'typically' isn't enough, than the prudent thing to do is just not to put anyone with 100 jumps under such canopies. Even an expert can be wrong. If the expert gives a newbie the go-ahead to jump a Stiletto, and it turns out to be a mistake, the result is severe injury or death. If the expert were to err in the other way and restrict a jumper from jumping such a canopy, and in truth this jumper could have handled it with 100 jumps, the result of this mistake is simply a gifted jumper ended up putting 200 jumps on a more conservative canopy. So if you guess wrong in one direction - severe injury or death. Guess wrong the other way - 200 jumps on a conservative canopy. I'm not sure how you define 'prudent', but where I come from the latter choice fits the bill. Well Ok then. I suppose the OP should jump a Navigator 250 or wait...better make it a 280 for safety's sake, for 4000 jumps or so. That way he'll be guaranteed to be injury and death free......Right?.....But maybe that's not "prudent" advice either...is it? It's very simple sir...YOU have no idea what to tell this gentleman no matter what your jump numbers are. Whatever.....

http://www.uspa.org/safety/safetyday/RiskQuotient.pdf There you are.

That's great. However I took the comment in question as ridicule, not as a serious comment.

Funny JP. Qualified for what? What qualifications are required to suggest the advice of local experts only and consider these forums for entertainment? I think not. I've been around a lot JP. You know that. I call it like i see it.

So what your telling us is that there are guys with 1000's of jumps who can't figure out how to land a canopy. With this in mind, you can't see how it might be prudent to keep a guy with 100 jumps on a conservative wing? That's exactly what I'm saying. However, it works both ways. I'll agree that typically 100 jumps isn't even close to enough experience for a less conservative canopy such as a Stiletto. It is simply a case by case basis. The ONLY advice anyone should take seriously is that of the expert's at their home dropzone. That's what would be prudent. How much more difficult do you want to make it?